WARN Act mass layoff and plant closure notices in Pearl City, Hawaii, updated daily.
Workers affected by industry sector
| Company | City | Employees | Notice Date | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entertainment America, Inc. (Chuck E. Cheese) | Pearl City | 24 | 2025-06-09 | Closure |
| KCP Plumbing Holdings Acquisition Sub, LLC dba Steves Plumbing and AC Service | Pearl City | 177 | 2023-04-03 | |
| Ito Family Holding Corp | Pearl City | 350 | 2022-08-01 | Closure |
| Urgent Care Hawaii | Pearl City | 65 | 2021-09-30 |
# Economic Analysis of Pearl City Layoffs
Pearl City's layoff activity reveals a concentrated, episodic pattern of workforce disruption affecting 616 workers across just four WARN notices since 2021. While this absolute number is substantial relative to the city's size, the data reflects a critical characteristic of Hawaii's economic vulnerability: dependence on a small number of large employers whose individual decisions cascade across entire communities.
The 616 affected workers represent a significant labor market shock for a city of Pearl City's scale. To contextualize this impact, a single layoff event affecting hundreds of workers in a mid-sized Hawaii community creates immediate pressure on the local job market, local retail spending, and municipal tax bases. Unlike mainland metropolitan areas where workforce reductions of this magnitude might be absorbed across multiple sectors and geographic submarkets, Hawaii's island economy—and Pearl City's position within it—concentrates risk. When one major employer sheds workers, the ripple effects compress into a tighter geographic and economic space.
The four WARN notices filed in Pearl City reveal an extreme concentration of layoff activity among two dominant employers. Ito Family Holding Corp accounts for nearly 57 percent of all affected workers with 350 positions eliminated across a single notice, while KCP Plumbing Holdings Acquisition Sub, LLC (operating as Steves Plumbing and AC Service) represents another 177 workers, or 29 percent of the total. These two companies alone account for 86 percent of all layoffs documented in Pearl City's WARN filing record.
Ito Family Holding Corp's large-scale reduction suggests significant operational restructuring within the company or its portfolio of subsidiaries. The scale of this single action—350 workers—indicates this was not a minor adjustment but rather a substantial contraction, possibly reflecting strategic portfolio changes, property disposition, or fundamental shifts in business model. The absence of public reporting data on Ito Family Holding Corp's specific operations in the available record limits detailed sectoral analysis, but the magnitude suggests either a major retail, hospitality, or commercial real estate operation.
Steves Plumbing and AC Service, by contrast, operates in a readily identifiable sector. The 177-worker reduction reflects broader pressures within Hawaii's construction and skilled trades sectors. The acquisition structure evident in the company name—KCP Plumbing Holdings Acquisition Sub, LLC—suggests this reduction may represent post-acquisition consolidation, redundancy elimination, or operational integration following a change in ownership. Construction-related layoffs carry particular significance in Hawaii's economy, where building trades represent both direct employment and serve as economic indicators for broader investment trends.
Urgent Care Hawaii's 65-worker layoff and Entertainment America, Inc. (Chuck E. Cheese's) 24-worker reduction round out the picture. The healthcare layoff indicates contraction within urgent care operations, potentially reflecting post-pandemic utilization pressures or consolidation within the healthcare sector. The entertainment sector reduction aligns with national trends in casual dining and family entertainment venues facing persistent headwinds.
Only two industries appear explicitly in the WARN data for Pearl City: construction (177 workers, one notice) and arts & entertainment (24 workers, one notice). However, the data structure itself obscures important sectoral information—Ito Family Holding Corp's 350-worker reduction is not categorized by industry in the available records, creating a significant analytical gap. This 57-percent share of all layoffs remains sectorially unidentified.
What remains visible is instructive: construction's representation in the layoff data reflects vulnerability within Hawaii's building trades. The 177-worker reduction at Steves Plumbing and AC Service points to consolidation pressures within specialized construction services. Hawaii's construction sector faces persistent challenges including material cost volatility, labor availability constraints, and cyclical sensitivity to broader economic conditions. Acquisition and consolidation activity in this space often triggers workforce redundancies as acquiring firms integrate operations and eliminate duplicate functions.
The arts & entertainment sector's appearance in Pearl City's layoff record, though limited to 24 workers, reflects the fragility of discretionary spending-dependent businesses. While this single notice at Chuck E. Cheese is modest in absolute terms, it represents a sector particularly vulnerable to consumer spending fluctuations and economic downturns.
WARN notices in Pearl City appear with remarkable consistency: one notice filed in each of 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2025. This four-year span with exactly one notice per year (excluding no filings in 2024) suggests neither acceleration nor improvement in layoff activity—rather, a steady baseline of significant workforce disruptions.
The even distribution across years prevents identifying clear cyclical patterns. The 2021 notice likely reflected pandemic-era adjustments, while subsequent notices may indicate persistent structural challenges rather than acute crisis events. The 2025 notice arriving early in the year provides insufficient data to assess whether this year will follow the historical annual pattern.
For Pearl City's labor market and community, 616 workers displaced across four years represents a meaningful drain on local earning power and household stability. Each layoff event creates acute pressure on affected workers and their families, particularly in Hawaii where the cost of living significantly exceeds national averages. Workers in Pearl City displaced by these WARN-notified reductions face limited local replacement employment opportunities unless those jobs exist within the same or adjacent sectors.
The concentration among a handful of employers amplifies risk exposure. A Pearl City resident employed at Ito Family Holding Corp or Steves Plumbing and AC Service faces significant vulnerability to company-specific decisions. Unlike residents of large metropolitan areas with diversified employer bases, Pearl City workers depend more heavily on the stability of dominant local employers.
These layoffs directly impact municipal revenue streams. Displaced workers file fewer state and county tax returns on the same income levels, and reduced household spending diminishes sales tax collections. Over four years, 616 displaced workers represent substantial foregone economic activity at the neighborhood level.
Positioning Pearl City within Hawaii's statewide economic context requires recognizing that island economies operate as integrated but distinct labor markets. Pearl City's concentration of layoffs among a small number of employers reflects broader patterns visible across Hawaii: vulnerability to decisions made by major employers with limited geographic diversity.
Hawaii's economy, heavily dependent on tourism, military spending, and a small number of large private employers, shows particular sensitivity to layoffs within those dominant firms. Pearl City, as part of the greater Honolulu metropolitan area, participates in the same labor market as the state capital but experiences layoffs that remain localized in their employment impact. A construction or hospitality layoff in Pearl City may affect Honolulu residents employed there but cannot be easily absorbed across the broader island economy.
The 616 affected workers represent real individuals navigating a labor market where Hawaii's geographic isolation limits employer options and where cost of living demands quick reemployment at comparable wage levels—a significantly more constrained situation than workers facing similar displacements on the mainland.
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